Strapless

Strapless
Leigh Riker

With only 207 more shopping days until thirty, Darcie Elizabeth Baxter is searching for…an office with a door on it, a great apartment in Manhattan and a man who's interested in commitment.Instead, she's been spending her days battling her co-workers at Wunderthings Lingerie International and her nights trying to avoid her grandmother's possessed cat. And though she gets a great employee discount, she hasn't needed it since…well, it's been a while. Even her grandmother has a more active social life. So when a chance to go to Sydney to open up a new lingerie store lands in Darcie's lap, she jumps at it.Australia is incredible, and so is Dylan Rafferty, the Aussie sheep rancher she falls into bed with. But now that she's met a man capable of giving her multiple orgasms and multiple laughs, Darcie bristles at his fantasy of her barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen, no less. Should she marry him, or send him back to the set of The Donna Reed Show?Caught between romance and reality, Darcie vows to define life, and happiness, her own way–even if that means risking it all and going strapless!

Strapless

Darcie Elizabeth Baxter tries to get a handle…

ON MEN

I’m not asking for much—though Mr. Exactly Right would be nice. But do they all have to be Mr. So Unbelievably Wrong?

ON RELATIONSHIPS

Does it count if your only contact with him is a Monday-night rendezvous at the local Hyatt?

ON WORK

How can I possibly climb the corporate ladder with Greta Hinckley, a woman with Sabotage tattooed on one cheek and Revenge on the other (and I don’t mean her face!), perched on the next rung?

ON FAMILY

Am I the only person alive who thinks that families are like men…can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em?

ON TRAVEL

Australia…jet lag…a mirrored closet wall in a fancy hotel…too much beer…too many sheep…and Dylan. Oh, God. What am I going to do?

Strapless

Leigh Riker

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

For Kristi Goldberg, who first urged me to tell this story—

and take a new direction. Your ongoing support

and encouragement mean so much.

Thanks, dear friend and fellow writer.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter

One

“I mean, it’s just logical—stuff happens. Right?”

Like muttering to herself, Darcie Elizabeth Baxter thought, or trying to make sense of things, this was nothing new. Stuff happened, especially to a twenty-nine-year-old woman trying to figure out her life. Happiness. Men. Work. You name it.

So on a sleet-drizzled Monday morning in January, it didn’t surprise Darcie to march into her cubicle at Wunderthings Lingerie International six floors above the Avenue of the Americas—and find Greta Hinckley rifling her desk. Again. Still, Darcie’s heart stalled. Even her grandmother told her she could be too trustingly naive. Although Wunderthings was not a huge corporation on the order of Warner, Maidenform, or Victoria’s Secret—the industry superstar—the smaller company had potential. Darcie wanted to be part of that, but she felt a sinking sensation. Had she left the draft of her proposal for this week’s development meeting in plain view?

“Morning, Greta.”

The other woman jumped—not high enough for Darcie’s taste—then whirled around, a sickly smile pasted on her narrow mouth. It made Darcie feel lush, as if she’d sprung for those silicone lip injections like all the female news anchors on TV. Everything about Greta Hinckley seemed narrow. Her horsey face, her shoulders, her blade-slim body…her mind.